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The RX is alive...muhahahaha


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My RX has been down for a while (nearly two months, IIRC) while I was busy trying to get some silicone heater hose to replace the upper turbo coolant hose (which had suddenly started spurting coolant when I swapped out the bad radiator). BTW, if any of you are looking for silicone heater hose, check out a company named "Vertex" on eBay. Great pricing, sold by the inch (no 10ft minimums like some companies :rolleyes: ), and they actually have the stuff (I tried to order from Paragon Performance originally, which has great pricing as well, but their supplier is horribly backordered).

 

Also, while the car was down I reinstalled the manual boost controller (as it's a pain to do once everything is back in place) and "fixed" the crack on the intake boot (more on this once I've driven the car enough to approve of the results).

 

The good news:

- Car isn't "hesitating" like it was after my former intake boot "fix" (i.e. duct tape...lol)

- The car isn't shooting coolant out the upper turbo coolant hose now

- The engine feels very strong

- The temp gauge is rock solid at just over the 1/3 mark on the gauge (180-degree thermostat)

 

The bad news:

- There is a good amount of smoke coming from the turbo area (my current theory's are: turbo needs rebuilt (bad seal?), oil line leak, lower coolant line leak, or something just got on the turbo while it was sitting and is just burning off); I can't actually see anything leaking so I'll see if the smoke persists after a few trips and watch my coolant and oil levels in the mean time. (Since the turbo wasn't smoking like this before, I'm hoping it's just burning off something; maybe some leftover coolant residue from when the upper turbo coolant hose was leaking.)

- The oil was noticeably low - it's been a few months since I changed the oil and I haven't kept an eye on the oil level, so this could have been a gradual thing (it is a Subaru after all...even my Impreza eats oil...LOL); it was about 2.5 quarts low, though, so I need to keep a better eye on that. :-\

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Gee Shane, I tried to find a company named Vertex that sells silcone tubing but couldn't. I searched eBay and Google, but couldn't come up with such a company. There is one that sells wiring products, www.taylorvertex.com and another that sells pistons, but none that sells silcone tubing. Could you please check your source again and see if they have a web site.

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Gee Shane, I tried to find a company named Vertex that sells silcone tubing but couldn't. I searched eBay and Google, but couldn't come up with such a company. There is one that sells wiring products, www.taylorvertex.com and another that sells pistons, but none that sells silcone tubing. Could you please check your source again and see if they have a web site.

 

The eBay seller id is "vertexnow" and the company is called Vertex Industries Inc.

 

Here is their eBay store:

http://stores.ebay.com/vertexnow

 

Here is the item I bought from them:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=2471549747

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Does that mean you are going to autocross the RX now?

 

I'm working on it. ;)

 

My Impreza still has MUCH better handling and power, though. Weight is about the only advantage the RX has and it isn't THAT much lighter. I don't expect it to be as fast as the Impreza but it should still be decently quick once I do the RWD conversion and do the 5-lug swap so I can toss the 225 Victoracers on there...LOL :)

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I think my GL-10 will be faster than your RX. :drunk:

 

No comment...LOL ;)

 

Whats keeping you from the RWD conversion?

 

Originally, I was looking around for a set of broken axles to steal the outer stubs from, but now I'm just thinking I'll wait until I get my five lug parts and do it then (since the front axles will have to changed to XT6 axles anyway during the conversion).

 

Since the front axles I'm getting will be off a car that's being parted out, I figure I'll look at the condition and go from there. If they are in great shape, I'll keep them for the reconversion to 4WD this winter and start looking for broken XT6 front axles. If they are in any less than great shape, I'll destroy them for the outer stubs and buy a set of rebuilt front axles for the winter.

 

BTW, the car made it's first real trip this morning (to work, which is about a 25 mile drive) and it ran pretty well. Still a little hesitation under certain conditions (maybe the IAC valve or O2 sensor IS bad) but no smoke from the turbo today...woohoo :banana:

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Replaced the O2 sensor on the RX today ($30 for a Bosch from Advance (and not the "universal" one either...that one was only like $18)) and it looks like some of my hesitation is gone now...also, the A/F ratio gauge isn't "sluggish" now either (which is one reason I was suspecting the O2 sensor in the first place).

 

I also replaced the distributor cap (was going to replace the rotor as well, but the part I got (from Autozone) isn't the right size :rolleyes: ) and also adjusted out the slack from the throttle cable while I was at it.

 

The car seemed to be running much better and was much more responsive during the post-install test drive today. A few more hose replacements (PCV and vacuum) and I'm done with the basic maintenance and ready for some upgrades! :D

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If you had got the parts from me...it would be the right ones the first time! And that Bosch O2 would have been a little cheaper.

 

But thats great that its comming back together...maybe it would be able to keep up with my wagon.... ;)

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If you had got the parts from me...it would be the right ones the first time! And that Bosch O2 would have been a little cheaper.

 

But thats great that its comming back together...maybe it would be able to keep up with my wagon.... ;)

If both of you are lucky, you might be able to keep up with MY RX! :D;)
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If you had got the parts from me...it would be the right ones the first time! And that Bosch O2 would have been a little cheaper.

 

Yes, but you are also 2 hours away. LOL :)

 

Lately, AutoZone has just started to piss me off. They've started carrying more and more ricer crap and fewer actual car parts over the last year or so. I'm starting to have much better luck with Advance and NAPA lately (not just for parts, but they seem to have better customer service as well).

 

Anyway, UPDATE ON MY HESITATION ISSUES:

 

On the way home from a friend's house last night, I noticed that pretty much all the hesitation was gone (plus it's amazing what an adjusted throttle cable does for throttle response...lol...speaking of which, this makes me wonder if I ever really hit WOT before, when you manually pushed on the throttle cable, it took about 1.5 inches of travel before it took up the slack and the throttle part would actually start to move).

 

However, at one point during the trip, I did get the familiar, mash the gas to the floor and wait a few seconds for the car to respond, and when it did I looked over at the A/F guage. It was still doing the hovering "closed-loop" thing, even though I was at WOT! When the car finally took off (literally 2-3 seconds later) the A/F gauge immediately showed the change to "open-loop" landing in the slightly rich range. The rest of the time, though, it would immediately change to open loop when I'd peg the gas with no hesitation.

 

So this has me wondering, could my TPS (Throttle Position Sensor) be dying on me or there something else to suspect here?

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